No lockdown loser: the cheerful melancholy of Daisy Veacock

Hailing from South London, singer-songwriter Daisy Veacock has been quietly releasing a series of tracks combining the emotional honesty (and delivery style) of Lily Allen with the jazz-infused spirit of Norah Jones since 2018.

Her debut EP, Lockdown Loser, reflecting on life (and released) during the pandemic, opens with that weighty injunction from Boris which issued forth from our television screens, “You must stay at home,” and lamenting sax leads into her trademark, clear-sighted, torchbeam of self-scrutiny. couldn’t play it cool sashays in with a summery smile, and the comfortable shuffle of you can’t come and stay charts a relationship’s slow decline with remarkably good cheer. There’s a lovely Sunday-morning-relaxed vibe to coffee in our underwear, and the album closes with the cheerful melancholia that’s an appealing feature of her music as a whole.

As well as gigging around grassroots venues and festivals, last year Daisy was a support act for the august Jools Holland Rhythm ‘n Blues Orchestra. Here, she wields her guitar and jazz/pop style back in March at the Luna Live sessions:

Still in her early twenties, there’s already an assuredness and deft musicality to her writing; her latest offering, due for release on 5th August, Pickle Juice, puns on the sonic similarity of ‘pick or choose / pickle juice’ and keeps in the same charming vein – here’s hoping her persistent efforts to persuade the Branston company to adopt it as their signature melody pays off. It would be a moment to relish…